After successful completion of linking of Godavari and Krishna rivers through Pattiseema lift Irrigation Project, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Chandrababu Naidu has taken up another gigantic and mega intra-linking of Godavari, Penna rivers to divert 320 TMC of Godavari floodwaters to drought prone areas of Rayalaseema, Prakasham and Nellore districts with an Project outlay of Rs 80000 crores.
On Friday, Government of India’s Wapcos has submitted a detailed report to the Chief Minister. The report says the proposed linkage system requires about 32000 acres of land acquisition which includes 7000 acres of forest land.
The State Government would present the proposal to the Union Minister for Water Resources, Nitin Gadkari, on 23rd of this month who is coming to the State to visit and review Polavaram project. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also proposing inter linking of Godavari, Kaveri (Tamil Nadu) rivers via Penna river. The Union Minister Gadkari has already discussed about linking of Godavari and Kaveri linkage with the Chief Minister Naidu. Interestingly, Naidu also agreed to the proposal subject to 100 per cent support by the Union Government for early completion of Polavaram.
According to Wapcos report, to divert 320 TMC of Godavari flood waters to Penna basin through many lift stages along 701 kms of canals for which 3625 MW of power is required.
“It is required to create 1500 TMC of water storage facility in the State. Experts should plan to divert flood waters to distressed areas through existing canals and reservoirs rather creating new canals and reservoirs by which major land acquisition can be avoided and thousands of crores of rupees can be saved”, Chief Minister suggested.
Another Barrage on Krishna River upstream to Prakasam Barrage......
The Chief Minister has cleared a proposal of construction of another Barrage on Krishna River 23 KM upstream to the present Prakasam Barrage with an outlay of IJ3278 crores.
“The proposed Barrage would be completed within 3 years”, State’s Minister for Water Resources, Devineni Uma Maheswara Rao, has said. CM’s Principle Secretary Sai Prasad, Water Resources Principle Secretary Sashibhushan and Engineer-in-Chief M. Venkateswara Rao have also participated in the meeting.